


From the Ground Up

by Starshaker



Series: 30 days of Techienician [26]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Original Character(s), Prequel, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 13:33:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8753518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starshaker/pseuds/Starshaker
Summary: 30 Days of Techienician. Day 26: Before they met. Matt has been job searching for six months and is running low on cash and morale. But an interview at First Order Enterprises begins the star of a new set of goals for him.





	

“So why should we hire you for this role?”

Matt couldn’t even remember the name of this woman interviewing him, the name of the assistant who sat typing in the corner or the other woman who had excused herself to take an urgent phone call about thirty seconds into his interview. He could barely remember the title of the position he’d applied for. A job with the First Order was a job for life no matter where you started, good wages and long hours but who was Matt to complain. He’d been job searching for six months and was down to his last thirty dollars. No second chances, no-one to turn to, nothing else left to pawn. Ms Mallory couldn’t give him in a pass on the rent for much longer.

 

Before he knew it he was stepping out of the First Order offices having shook three different people’s hands, and received an airy promise of hearing a response in two days time. 

The rain started thirty seconds after he’d stepped outside.

 

His walk home would take him an hour and his shoes were soaked through by the time he’d reached the first crosswalk. A chill had begun to spread through his extremities within twenty minutes and despite his attempts to blow warm air on his hands it didn’t seem to make much difference. His blazer was borrowed, the pockets sewn shut to stop the owner for looking ‘unprofessional’ with their hands shoved out of sight. Matt shoved his hands under his armpits instead, his blazer and thin shirt pulled tight across his abdomen. 

 

By the time he reached his front doorstep every step sent sharp pains up his calves and his fingers were so numb from the cold that he struggled to fit the key into the lock of both his front door and his apartment. 

 

“At least I won’t have to do this much longer,” He muttered as he dropped his keys into his hoodie on the hook by the door and began to strip off his sodden clothes. He hung them roughly over the towel rails in the bathroom and hoped Ms Mallory took pity on him and turned the heating on later. 

The kitchen was bare, and he was took cold to cook anything anyway. He pulled a thick hoody and clean boxers from his wardrobe and went straight back to bed. The covers were just as cold no matter how many extra scratchy blankets he’d gathered over the years. His feet and hands throbbed from the cold, His eyes hurt. His eyes had been hurting a lot recently which meant he probably needed new glasses. More money he didn’t have. 

He supposed he must have dozed off to sleep since when he heard the front door shut three floors below he startled awake. He growled into the pillow and thumped his hand down hard. At least he had feeling back in his hands and feet now. Still cold but not blistering.

The slammed front door could only be Ms Mallory. Anyone else would have their ear torn off for disrespecting her property. He could stay in bed until she put the heating on for a little while. Maybe she’d want him to cook dinner and he’d get some dinner. He curled in on himself and wondered how long of tomorrow he could camp out in the internet cafe two blocks over with only a glass of water. The counter staff knew him by now and none of them liked him. 

Then again, better than the last place he’d tried, where the staff had point blank denied that the vacancy advertised in the window was available. Policy changes seemed to follow him; where anyone using the internet had to switch from having a cheap cup of coffee, to one cup and hour, or a drink and food before they could use the computers.The nearest library would have cost him more in bus money and food there was even more expensive in the ‘casual cafe’. 

A heavy rap of a cane against his door startled him from his sleep a second time and he pulled himself up. A second and third knock sounded before he reached the door. His blind and impatient mother figure. He didn’t bother to find any trousers. 

“If you hit any harder I won’t have a door,” He shouted as he toed stacks of mess to the side of the hallway in case she came in, “Or would you prefer to come barging in?”

He shouted just before he opened the door. Ms Mallory huffed in greeting. 

“Stop moping,” She snapped and pushed a phone into his hands, her thumb over the speaker, “ You’re lucky I got home in time to answer it,”

“Hello? This is Matt,” He said as he stepped out of Ms Mallory’s way as she bustled in. Anything in her way was kicked with far more force than a simple step would need.

“Hi Matt, It’s Paulette from First Order Enterprises, we spoke earlier,” The woman on the phone said. Matt turned away from Ms Mallory at the introduction.

“Hi, Hi yes hello,”

“I didn’t want to waste any time in telling you that myself and Josie have discussed your interview and we would like to offer you the role of Kitchen Assistant and Food Hygiene Technician,”

“Th-thank you,” Matt stuttered, “Thank you I-,”

“If you are happy to accept-”

“Yes, yes I would like to accept the position,” Matt interrupted and he cringed as he heard something in the living room clatter to the floor.

“Excellent,” She said and a crackle on the line in the background likely meant she was typing, “We can begin onboarding on Monday provided you can sign and return the contract I’ve emailed to you,”

“I’ll get that sorted tomorrow,” He said quickly.

“Any other questions?”

“No, I don’t think so. Thank you so much,”

“Okay, if you think of anything just add them onto the email and I’ll reply as soon as I can,”

“Thank you,”

“Have a good evening Matthew,” Paulette said.

“Yes you too,” He said though the woman had already hung up. He turned off the phone and after a breath to ease his disbelief he pursued Ms Mallory. He found her in the bathroom.

 

“I got a job!”

“Didn’t I tell you thinks would look up,” Ms Mallory said and scoffed as she felt along the towel rail to his bunched up interview wear. She straightened them up and Matt heard the telltale rattle of the hot water beginning to circulate in the radiators.

“You told me not to mope,”

“Same thing,” She said and waved him out of the doorway as she exited, “Now get dressed properly and come and cook my dinner,”

 

“What’s for dinner?” Ms Mallory asked as he stepped inside her ground floor flat and reached for the light switch.

“I don’t know what you have in Ms Mallory,”

“Mac ‘n’ cheese’ll do,”

“If you say so,”

“The nice stuff,” the said and pointed a long boney finger in his direction.

“So from a box….” He drawled. 

“If I wanted food from a box I could have done it myself,”

“You always said you liked my company,”

“The same noise as if I have the discovery channel on the box,”

“I didn’t think you could get the discovery channel,” Matt said as he started the sauce with a lump of butter and a handful of flour throw into a saucepan.

“No.They talk a lot of rubbish about things I’ll never see anyway,” Ms Mallory said, “What’s this job you’ve got for yourself then?”

“Kitchen assistant,” He said as he picked a wooden spoon from the utensils pot and picked off the dried on food that hadn’t been properly washed off.

“So you’re at the bottom again,”

“It’s better than minimum wage. And its with the First Order. They’re going to be opportunities,”

“You used to have dreams,”

“My dreams are smaller now,” Matt said, as much as he was loathe to say it out loud. “Get a job, done that. Get back on track paying your rent, getting to that. Buy my stuff back from the pawnbroker,” As he listed off his plan he pictured his apartment filling up with his tech and Kylo Ren memorabilia. 

“You’re too big to have small dreams,” Ms Mallory told him.

“When was the last time you had any ambition?” He snapped. Ms Mallory settled back in her chair with a smug grin on her face.

“I was going to outlive my eight sisters, I’m getting to that,” She said proudly.

“You smoke, eat too much salt and fat, you don’t exercise,”

“I climb those stairs every day to make sure you haven’t suffocated in the night,” Ms Mallory snapped, “Believe me I should have to since I can hear you snoring all night long,”

“I’ll buy you some earplugs with my first paycheck,” Matt said and dropped the pasta shapes into the bubbling pan of water

“Buy yourself a decent shirt and get your haircut and maybe whoever you bring back to your bed will show you how to keep the noise down,”

“Ms Mallory, if I brought anyone home then it wouldn’t be quiet,”

“Would you talk about this with your mother?”

“Probably. You always said she slept around,”

“She kept the noise down when she did though,” “It was those men she brought back that didn’t. Always wanted more when she told them to get out. “I did enjoy chasing that one wiht my fire poker though. I’ve never seen a man look so scared for his crown jewels,”

“If I bring someone back I’ll probably be quite concerned for their crown jewels,” Matt said as he poured extra milk into the saucepan.

“How else am I supposed to test their mettle?” Ms Mallory asked haugtily

“I’m sure you’re come up with something twice as terrifying,” Matt said as he leant back against the counter. He knocked the pan of pasta and the water splashed up, “Ah fuck,” Matt jerked his hand away from the spitting water and wiped it quickly on a towel before pulling the pasta off the heat.

“That’s why you’ve got to work at the bottom of a kitchen staff,” Ms Mallory told him, 

“Professionals don’t swear,”

“Professionals swear all the fucking time,” Matt snapped. He wiped quickly around the hob where the water hissed against the electric rings.

“TV Chefs aren’t professionals,” Ms Mallory scoffed.

“I’m never going to be a professional,” Matt said and sighed as he stirred the sauce.

“You get paid for it you’re a professional. You’ll have a restaurant or something soon enough,”

“I think I prefer my little goals,” 

“And when you get bored of them,”

“Then I’ll find something else,” Matt told her, “I might find something else at the First Order. Something better,”


End file.
